Ilkhanate

The Ilkhanate (1256-1356) was a division of the Mongol Empire that encompassed its Middle Eastern conquests, stretching from Pakistan to Turkey. Led by the descendants of Hulegu Khan, the Ilkhanate was centered around the city of Qom in Iran. It was a multiethnic and religiously-diverse empire, encompassing cultures such as Sindhis, Afghans, Bedouin, Kurds, Levantines, Armenians, Turks, as well as the ruling Mongols and religions such as Sunni Islam, Shia Islam, Druze, Tengrism, Nestorian Christianity, and Orthodox Christianity.

History
The Mongol Empire conquered the Middle East starting in 1219 after Sultan Muhammad II of Khwarezm executed Mongol ambassadors, leading to Genghis Khan's invasion of their territory in Uzbekistan and other regions in the area. In 1256, Genghis Khan's grandson Hulegu Khan was dispatched by Mongke Khan to conquer the remaining Muslim states in southwest Asia, and the Mongols sacked Baghdad in 1258 before pushing all the way to Syria by 1260. In 1260, the Mongols sacked Damascus and conquered Syria from the Qutuzid Sultanate, leaving them with an empire stretching from the Indian Subcontinent to the Levant. Hulegu Khan ruled the dynasty from his capital of Qom in Persia, and in 1261 he converted from Tengrism to Orthodox Christianity along with his close family and the elite of the empire.



The Ilkhanate was a megadiverse empire due to its size, but Hulegu ignored the local religion of Sunni Islam and began to Christianize the empire. Some of his first decisions after the conquest of Syria and Jordan were to appoint Mongol bishops in the major cities, replacing the timariots. The Ilkhanid khagan also demanded the religious conversion of his Muslim and Tengri vassals, while some Nestorians were allowed to keep their faith. The Mongols became allies with the Byzantine Empire, a fellow Orthodox nation, and Hulegu refused to invade the Kingdom of Georgia because their king was a fellow Christian. The Muslim rulers were disgusted by the Mongols' adoption of Christianity, as Caliph al-Mustansir II declared a jihad on the Ilkhanate. The Muslims gathered armies as far west as Mali and as far east as Azerbaijan, but this army was defeated at Takht e-Soleyman on 25 December 1261, and the Mongols forced the Caliph to surrender after ravaging the Kesranid Satrapy of Azerbaijan. In 1263, Hulegu Khan declared a holy war against the Muslims of Azerbaijan and conquered the satrapy, usurping the title of Satrap.

Hulegu Khan died peacefully in his sleep in 1265 and was succeeded by his son Teguder Khan, one of the few Mongols to escape religious conversion. Teguder was a Nestorian, while his brothers and almost all of the Ilkhanid vassals were Muslim. Teguder appointed Nestorian Christians to high posts in the empire, and after his conquest of the pockets of Syria still in Mameluke hands, he gave the titles to Nestorians.